BMW Launches Hydrogen 7

BMW has delivered on its pledge to build a production-ready hydrogen fueled vehicle - and starting next year, you might see one on the road. The new Hydrogen 7 continues the evolution of earlier BMW prototypes, taking its power from a conventional internal combustion engine converted to run on hydrogen. Unlike previous iterations, however, the Hydrogen 7 has successfully completed BMW's product development process, meaning all of its components were integrated according to the same standards as any other production BMW. The German automaker will produce a limited run of the vehicles for an extensive demonstration and testing program that will put them on the streets at the hands of select users - likely government agencies at first - in the U.S. and other countries.

Based on the company's flagship 7-Series luxury sedan, the Hydrogen 7 contains a storage tank holding 17.6 pounds of liquid hydrogen as well as a conventional 19.5 gallon gasoline tank. The car's 6.0-liter V-12 will run on either fuel at the switch of a button, in both cases developing 260 hp and 287 lbs-ft of torque. The bi-fuel design is intended to keep drivers from becoming stranded between extremely sparse liquid hydrogen filling opportunities. The hydrogen provides a range of about 125 miles with virtually zero CO2 emissions and low NOx emissions. The gasoline tank is good for another 300 miles. One downside: since the liquid hydrogen must be stored at ultra-low temperatures - in this case -418 ºF - BMW says a half-tank of liquid hydrogen will boil off completely in about nine days.